About Us

Mission

Launch CS provides world-class computer science/computational thinking integration professional development for K-8 educators.

Our organization was made for teachers, by teachers. Teachers rave about our online, in-person, and train-the-trainer courses because we focus on developing practical content and pedagogical knowledge in an exciting and engaging setting. We've worked with a wide range of educators including individuals through our online courses, in-person delivery to schools and districts, State level organizations through our train-the-trainer program, writing curriculum for national organizations, and even writing international K-12 computer science education standards.

Papert was a pioneer in computer science education. Decades ahead of his time, he started teaching elementary students to code in the 1970s. Much of the programming languages and robots that you see today are based off of his work. Our courses are unique in that they were developed within the framework of the constructionist learning theory. Seymour Papert built off his mentor Jean Piaget’s theory of constructivism to define a more modern version. In Situating Contructionism Papert wrote:

“Constructionism shares constructivism’s connotation of learning as ‘building knowledge structures’ irrespective of the circumstances of the learning. It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it's a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe.”

At Launch CS, we have carefully prepared both our in-person and online courses in a way that participants build their knowledge of concepts through interactive, social, and engaging projects. This not only creates a great learning environment, it also models how we think computer science should be taught in the classroom. We hope teachers will not only learn the concepts, but also replicate the way in which they were taught.